No Word for Welcome by Wendy Call The Mexican Village Faces the Global Economy

Winner of the 2011 National Book Prize for Nonfiction from Grub Street and the 2012 International Latino Book Award for Best History / Political Book.

"Locals know the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the 120-mile-wide strip of landthat connects the Yucatan Peninsula to Oaxaca and Veracruz, as"Mexico's little waist." The region is a hotbed of environmental andeconomic issues, such as the industrial shrimp farming that threatensto leave behind "the coastal equivalent of a desert." Drawing onresearch, extensive interviews, and firsthand experiences living therein the early 2000s, Call, a translator of Mexican poetry and fiction,portrays villagers' traditional ways of life in the throes of massivechange. (A Wal-Mart has already set up shop.) She cites Huatulco, aformer fishing village, as foreshadowing what may lie in store for theisthmus: "more than 51,000 acres of beach, field, and forest becamefederal government property, controlled by FONATUR, the nationaltourism development agency." Villagers were expropriated, and tworesidents who refused to leave their homes wound up murdered. Call isnever dry or academic; rather, she writes lively narrative, detaileddescription, and engaging scenes that render her subjects--aschoolteacher, fishermen, activists--three-dimensional. By relating thelives and concerns of isthmus dwellers and the struggles they face, theauthor raises awareness of globalization's effects on the villageeconomy." -- Publishers Weekly

"Call's graceful movement between cultures demonstrates herconsiderable skills as a writer, and especially as a translator. Forindeed she has a translator's ear.... Wendy Call's book is at once aportrait and a piece of that resistance, and a warning to the rest ofthe citizens of our global village."-- The Iowa Review

"We should be grateful for Wendy Call's delightful, yet painfullytruthful, story of the challenges facing one of Mexico's lesser-knownregions."-- Orion Magazine

"The book is full of color and life. When necessary, Call gives usnumbers, quantities, and economic analysis. But...the book is simple,enlightening, and sensitizing. The economic discourse suggested by thewords 'Global Economy' in the title is in fact secondary to thereal-life stories of the 'Mexican Village.'"-- Foreign Policy in Focus

\Wendy Call is a recent writer-in-residence at Seattle University, New College of Florida, and Harborview Medical Center. She is the coeditor of Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers Guide, author of numerous essays, and translator of Mexican poetry and short fiction.

Unrated Critic Reviews for No Word for Welcome

Publishers Weekly

(A Wal-Mart has already set up shop.) She cites Huatulco, a former fishing village, as foreshadowing what may lie in store for the isthmus: "more than 51,000 acres of beach, field, and forest became federal government property, controlled by FONATUR, the national tourism development agency."